PCGE with no intention of teaching ?

[Sofabitch]

Has anyone done the pcge with no intention of actually going into teaching?

I'm considering doing it. The bursary is pretty good and I could really do with a year to bump up my finances and repair my savings after 3 years of student finance before starting on the bottom rung of somewhere.

I figure it will look great on my CV regardless and has loads of great skills that I can take with me into my carer, plus I can get 60 credits at Masters level which saves a few thousand on the OU.

Is this an unworkable plan?

I mean there is a possibility I'll love it right ;-) but from everything I've read I'm not holding my breath.

I think i would enjoy it. But realistically don't think I could be a teacher in today's climate.

MrsGuyOfGisbo

Its easy to see why you are a supply teacher.

mrsguy is pretty mercenary herself so I can see why she's be encouraging the OP.

Lots of people do the PGCE with no intention of teaching, I've heard.

What do you mean by that comment, Boney? A little supply-teacher bashing?

Supply teachers are just as good and as knowledgeable as regular class teachers and we work just as hard.

MrsGuy definitely doesn't. She deliberately does day-to-day/short term supply so she doesn't have to plan, and if I recall correctly she avoids primary where they might expect her to do some marking. She swans in at 8:30 and clears off at 3:30.

Apart from staff meetings, training and cluster group meetings, I was in school 8.15 until 3.45/4.30 when I taught EYFS full-time, so not much different from when I do supply now and leave by 4 p.m, often with the classroom tidier than I found it, and with all work marked. What's wrong with that? Who's to say MrsGuy doesn't work as hard or as productively as anyone else? Maybe she gets all her marking and feedback done during break and lunch times.

I don't think it's appropriate to single out posters on this thread and I don't like the implication that supply teachers don't work as hard and play as useful as role as regular teachers.

I was in school 8.15 until 3.45/4.30 when I taught EYFS full-time

If that was all the work you did then you worked way less hard than most other teachers.

Seriously Creme if you think it is remotely possible to get all your marking done during break and lunchtimes (and what about planning?) as a full time teacher then you must be completely baffled by why so many teachers quit the profession claiming it is incompatible with any sort of work/life balance.

I'm 100% sure that MrsGuy doesn't work as hard as me.

'I was in school 8.15 until 3.45/4.30 when I taught EYFS full-time'

I know literally no teacher who works these hours. And I know a lot of teachers (as well as myself and my colleagues of course).

When I did my PGCE over half the students for my subject had come from other away countries for the bursary and the masters credits because the university had links with their unis, so they came out of it with an MA.
After the course finished the majority of them returned to their home countries and didn't do any teaching here.

So I guess what I'm saying is- why not?! The bursary does not keep teachers teaching. So you may as well take it and do what you like. Who knows, you might end up enjoying it!

You can only use the masters credits at the same uni you do the pgce at and only on certain courses.

Terrible idea and the bursary is not great anymore.

Just work in a job for a year and save like mad.

I have just started a secondary science PGCE. I have been teaching part time in FE for a couple of years and I have wanted to train as a secondary teacher for a while but it has been a very difficult decision to make. I have several friends who teach in local schools (with a good SLT) who say it's a hard job and very demanding but they love it and just about manage a work-life balance. On the other hand I've obviously read lots of negative things about teaching and heard what terrible a time it is to get into teaching. I have reached the point where I need to see whether it is for me and whether it will work for us as a family. I'm hoping that I'll be a good teacher, find a good school and stay in teaching for a long time but having a good bursary this year means I will be able to walk away without huge debts if it turns out to be a mistake. As much as I want to teach I think I'd be reluctant to go for the PGCE if that wasn't the case. I wouldn't have taken the place or the bursary if I wasn't determined to give it my best shot and hoping to make it a career though.

How on earth would you presume to know that, *Noble? FYI, I did two or three hours at home most week nights after my son had gone to bed and most of a day at the weekend too. My PPA time was for planning and my NQT time for filing observations and highlighting off children's EYFS profiles.
My main priority was getting home to spend time with my young son in the evenings before he went to bed and I refuse to apologise or feel at all guilty for that.

Anyway, this thread isn't about me. I've said what I think in response to the OP and I've also said that you and another poster haven't been particularly nice to MrsGuy and that's all I've got to say, as I'm neither of us have time to argue on here all night.

CremeEggThief

The short answer isn't that I was bashing supply teachers, I said that it was easy to see why she is a supply teacher.

The clue is in the word why as in her reason to be.

Also MrsGuy regularly points out that the reason that she is supply is because she doesn't want to do planning, marking or any of the other day to day work that is required of teachers.

She has also pointed out that she has never completed her NQT year, so her supply is short term. In effect she creates work for teachers.

Not all supply are like this but MrsGuy has little respect for the work that she causes others.

FYI, I did two or three hours at home most week nights

Well there you go, it wasn't all the work you did, you weren't just working 8:15-3:30. MrsGuy is. She's certainly not working 2-3 hours a night.

And I presume to know this because she has posted about it, how she gets the maximum money for the least work.

I didn't say it was all the work I did. It was just the hours I spent in the school building, on a normal day, when there weren't any meetings or training.

I'm surprised that you haven't said that the children you teach will be blessed by your mere presence.

You sound entitled and selfish. It's not all about you, you know.

Are you crazy?!!! Pgce's are hard at the best of times, I can't begin to imagine why you would even think of doing this without actually wanting to teach.
There must be another way for you?!

I went straight from uni to PGCE however in my final year of uni I volunteered at a local primary school 3x a week between lectures and I worked in a play scheme for children during the holidays. This was 13 years ago and the course was very hard to get onto then, I believe it's harder now with a real emphasis on school based experience.

The PGCE is a tough year and not one to be undertaken lightly.

One of the many reasons I'm looking for an out is the insistence that unless you're working 70 hour weeks you're not dedicated enough. When I started my then head queried what I was still doing at work at 5.30, now my current head praises staff that are in before 7am. It's not well paid enough or well respected enough to be worth the hours or effort.

If the gov in their infinite wisdom want to frontload the benefits of training then the natural consequence is some will take the maximum benefit and walk away. In my day you got a golden hello and 1/10 of your student loan repaid every year you stayed in teaching for a decade, so the maximum benefit took ten years to aquire, not one.

It is a job after all and people work to be paid.

I've just finished completely re-planning four hours of lessons for the rest of my department thanks to an IT issue and I've got a 13 hour day tomorrow.

If dh doesn't stop snoring I may explode!

Its a government flaw that they think getting more people to train without address the reason it's hard to recruit or why people are leaving the profession.

YY OP.

Do it. You may end up loving it just as much as someone who has wanted to teach all their life may end up hating it.

I really can't remember working in the evening on my PGCE. I had a couple of essays that I read for in lieu of sleeping pills but that was about it.

I left uni at 4.30 or school at 3.30 and it was then family time.

This was pre-Internet days, pre having a home computer with printer. There wasn't a lot that could be done at home. Modern technology is not always kind to teachers.

I went into teaching having worked in industry. I think I was better than younger trainees in terms of decision making and time management.

I worked alongside a PGCE student for a bit last year and she was hopeless at just picking a route through her lesson. She spent so much precious time weighing up options, and then thinking of new ones. Her lessons ended up being far too complicated, which added to her stress, which made her try even harder next time.

With ruthless decision making, I went with the first thing that was workable. This may not have been the best, but it gave me someone to put in my reflection/evaluation :)

I thought you would have to pay the tuition fees out of the £25,000?
The £9,000 tuition fees can be paid by taking out a Tuition Fee Loan and adding the amount to the rest of your existing student loan.

25k plus 10k student loan plus I'd keep my tax credits as it's not income related
I think that you need to check out if this is correct as some sources say that the bursary is not counted as income for TC purposes and others say that it is counted!!

Honestly I would also like a definitive answer to whether or not the bursary counts as income for TC purposes and if you have one could you please give me a link that I can refer others to??